EDITOR’S NOTE: We asked Staff Writer Aimee Risteen to write about the first major snowstorm from the perspective of somebody who lives in the dorms. This is her story.
I got a call on Thursday telling me we are supposed to have this huge snowstorm and that most likely classes will be canceled.
I’m thrilled.
No classes for me, or anyone else.
Then I realize I don’t have classes on Friday and neither does the majority of the school, but it’s still the first day of classes cancelled this year due to snow.
After the call, I doze off again, only to wake and see that it is already snowing.
A perfect start to a perfect day?
Yeah right, maybe if I lived in Alaska! I’m pissed. Snow sucks. Yeah, it’s all pretty when everything is immersed in pure white fluffy snow, but wait two days and then it’s all brown and saturated with dog pee.
The only happiness I get from the snow is there’s a possibility I may not have my 4:10 class tonight, which is great because a 40 page article I’ve been procrastinating on isn’t sounding too appetizing to read!
It’s now two hours later. I just returned home from a long walk to Financial Aid, the snow was still falling and so was I!
As a southern belle, I’m not used to this weather, so I still wore my two inch heeled, Steve Madden boots. To my surprise, I slipped on the hill, and fell right on my butt.
Besides that, there were plenty of people out and about on campus, despite the weather. The main conversation was whether or not evening classes had been cancelled.
As I walk into my dorm and get to my floor, the first thing I see is all the girls running around in circles with each other, jumping up and down, screaming, “Classes are cancelled!”
Quickly my face lights up with relief. No longer do I have to do my homework, and I jump right in on the fun.
Every resident on our floor is out in the hall enjoying the excitement as my roommate cracks open a nice refreshing beer and says, “Hey, it’s a good reason to start drinking early!”
From that point on, a couple of us sit in a friend’s room, enjoying the first day of cancelled classes with an ice-cold beer in everyone’s hand.
After a few drinks, I decide to take a walk through the Towers and see what everyone else is up to. As I approach 6th floor Dickey, I see a couple of boys out in the quad playing floor hockey. I ask them if they already know about classes being cancelled and they respond with a simple, “Hell yeah!”
At dinner, everyone seemed to be bursting with joy and giddy due to the snow and the cancellation of classes. I overheard a lot of people talk about going sledding later on in the night, and decided that would be fun.
I can’t change the fact that it’s snowing so I may as well make the best of it!
Upon returning home, the boys were all out in the quad playing catch with a football, seeing as they were all confined to the dorm for the night. I decided to join in, and after a few broken nails, I was done.
So now it’s time to get bundled up and go out for the night. The most I can do is hope I don’t fall again, and wonder if everyone will still be enjoying the snow as much tomorrow.
It’s Friday now, the first full day of cancelled classes and activities at USM.
As I predicted, no one is enjoying the snow as much anymore. Since we are all confined to the dorm for the day, my floor spent the majority of the day laying down in the quad laughing and sharing jokes, as the hung-over kid walked on his hands and amused us with impersonations of crickets and preying mantises.
We decided to have a slumber party out there tonight, seeing as there is nothing eventful to do thanks to the weather.
No one seems to have showered yet. There seems to be no point since we’ll all be dorm rats for the day.
Everyone around campus seems to be complaining. I’ve barely seen a single person outside. They’re mad that only the cafeteria is open and not the snack bar. They’re groaning about having empty stomachs because they all slept in and missed the lunch hours in the caf?, not knowing they wouldn’t have the snack bar to go to, and the roads are bad so they can’t go get food.
The other major complaint is the green zone-parking ban tonight in Gorham.
Students need to move their cars to commuter parking lots and freshman parking for plowing. If they don’t, they’ll get a ticket.
No one wants to go outside and scrape off the ice and snow from their car just to move it, and then have to hike all the way back to the dorms in this weather! Especially myself, seeing as I can’t drive in this crap and am afraid I’ll manage to wreck my car in the process.
So I’m off to work for the night in the Old Port, glad to get out of the dorm.